Air Traffic Controller shortage: Search your airport's staffing levels

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- No one knows the struggles going on behind the scenes at the Newark Airport better than retired Air Traffic Controller Colin Scoggins.

"It can be pretty stressful," said Scoggins.

Over the course of three decades, he worked during many stressful events, including 9/11.

"The New York area is really a special area," said Scoggins. "It can be stressful and intense," he said.

The radar screens that control Newark Airport went out briefly, not just once but twice over the past two weeks.

The FAA is rushing to try and fix and update the computer system. But the recent delays and cancellations are also due to a lack of air traffic controllers. They're understaffed.

A handful of air traffic controllers went out on medical leave in Newark after the first outage, calling it a traumatic event.

Scoggins says, to fill the gaps, controllers can work six days a week.

"It starts to wear on you if you do 5, 6 weeks in a row with only one day off, it can wear on you," he said. Scoggins says your "eyes and ears" are everything. He said they do receive multiple breaks throughout the day.

Unlike other jobs, air traffic controllers are trained to work at a specific airport and it takes months to train someone at a new facility.

"When you have Newark and LaGuardia and JFK, they're highly proceduralized on how they handle their traffic, so you just can't jump from one facility to the next," he said.

Eyewitness News mapped the towers across the country. There's a shortage of controllers nationwide. More than half of the air traffic control towers have only 70% of their targeted staffing levels.

Scoggins says there has been a shortage of controllers since the 1980s.

"They're trying to play catch up now, they also seem to try to hire another 2,500 more, but when you hire 2,500 more, 1,500 retire and you're still short," he said.

It's a long process to get new controllers in the towers. All of the country's air traffic controllers first have to go to school and then be trained at a center in Oklahoma City.

"Right now, getting people into the career fields is a challenge," said aviation professor Eric Jones. "Getting people through the training is often difficult, and I think it's one of the major challenges that we have," said Jones.

He said all of the training and hands-on experience is why flying is still the safest mode of transportation.

"The way the procedures are set, if you're understaffed, you're going to get delays," said Scoggins. "No one is going to take more aircraft than you can handle," he said.

ABC data journalist Frank Esposito contributed to this story.